NFG restores three cabs: Naomi Universal, CyberLead, New Astro City

OK, it's time to sink my teeth into a few cabs and make them beautiful. I've got three, each with different needs, and I've been doing the research and planning and plotting and doing everything I can to not actually have to do the work, but it's time.

The Cyber Lead is, like so many of them, made of white and purple panels that are both aging into an unattractive brown shade. I've already swapped out the power supply and except for some caps on the audio board, there's nothing left to fix. If I was feeling fussy I might try to replace all the 2-colour mini LEDs on the marquee but I really don't think I'm that much of a masochist.

The New Astro City has had a near-total loom replacement, with a lot of customized cabling installed to accommodate the various controllers, systems, amps etc that I use for different games. I'm pleased to report that the control panel crack repair is still holding strong, and I'm starting to feel confident about its longevity. But the previous owner, an operator with different goals than mine, used screws to keep the control panel closed and so there are some holes and cracks that need filling, and I plan on re-painting the whole thing, starting with the speaker/marquee plastic, which has gone quite yellow.

And finally, the Naomi Universal which is in decent shape but for the intensely yellow and fragile monitor surround, which I think is mostly being held together by the black bezel. There's a bit of rust, but the biggest problem is the red stains from north Queensland's iron rich red dust. So it needs a total re-paint, and I might have to lay down some fibreglass to reinforce the yellow plastics if the paint doesn't do the trick.

For all three cabinets it looks like a two pack paint is the right approach. It's part melamine for colour, and part fast-setting resin, which makes it incredibly hard wearing and comes with a built-in glossy appearance, so I won't have to clear-coat any of it.

The advice from the paint shop was to sand it, prime it, then spray it, so today I'm going to test the primer on the plastics (and I have a few Virtua Stick Pro joysticks that need a repaint too, so they're gonna get some) and see if there are any problems there. Also today I'm going to try and repair the cracks and holes in the NAC panel.

Pics and progress reports to follow. Gonna do my best to get real progress made before I lose interest and shelve them for another year. ^__^;

OK, so. Added some primer to the Cyber Lead panel, and to the Virtua Stick Pro. I know the former is polystyrene, but I have no idea what the latter's made of. They're both fairly thick so I'm not super worried about the effects of the primer, which should set long before it has a chance to melt the plastics.

I slapped a bunch on with a paint brush in a thicker than normal layer, just to stress test, and both plastics came through without any issue. Even at its wettest, there was no flex or deformation on either surface. So, when I get to spraying it (still need a compressor and sprayer, and some skills...) it should be fine.



Here's a photo of the Cyber Lead panel with primer, and two pics of the Astro City CP with the damage done by the previous op. I reckon the cracks below the panel were a direct result of the tension they were under and the dumbfuck introduction of a screw tip into the worst place.

Part of this repair will involve carving out the outside of that crack and filling it properly, before painting. The crack by the coin slot I'm inclined to leave alone, it'll disappear under the paint and it's not a high tension area. If they hadn't put screws through the coin slot (!?!) it'd have been fine.



One thing I forget to mention in the first post: since the Astro City uses gelcoat, I was told it'll be very difficult to paint over it without massively roughing up or stripping back the gelcoat first. Gelcoat, apparently, doesn't stick to much. You couldn't even re-coat it with more gelcoat with much expectation of the sort of durability or finish the first coat had. Age plays a part - it'll be easier now that it's 30 years old, from all the weathering and so on, but when it's new? No chance.

Interesting to see how the Cyberlead turns out in the end! Love those cabs, fortunately mine is still white instead of brown but I do have some LED's that are dimmer than others so wondering what you will do to those
Do you have the full red LED or the multi-color version?

PascalP said:

Do you have the full red LED or the multi-color version?

Click to expand...

I've got the two-colour LEDs.

Work continues. Last night I whipped up some Builder's Bog (bog being the Australian word for bondo, as used in car repair) and slapped it onto the Astro City. It claims to be suitable for all surfaces, and that seems to be the case.





The bog was very effective and easy to work with. Today I sanded it back and the result is pretty nice - certainly better than the holes were. The scratches from the sandpaper look worse than they are, I fully expect the primer and paint to smooth them out. But I might switch to 200grit instead of the 120 used here, to lessen the impact.

Next up, a bit of fibreglass on the inside, to cover the cracks. I don't think that it's going to be necessary, but it will reduce the risk of the cracks expanding.

Spent some time smoothing out the NAC panel housing, and then turned my attention to the Naomi Universal. The plastic has not just turned yellow and incredibly fragile, but it's crazed with hairline cracks, and a couple of real cracks as well. The horizontal layer beneath the fluorescent light and the monitor has warped as the plastic has expanded over the years, and just bending it to see if it could be straightened made a few cracking noises. This whole piece is in desperate need of some protection.



My plan is to apply a lot of fibreglass to the inside to make it a little more durable, and then prime and paint the outside to keep the UV from making it worse. I figure the fibreglass will do the most good if I put it along the two sides and wherever I can fit it on the top. I also hope to add it to the screw holes, because they're fragile af, and one has already come off. A previous owner has tried to repair it, but it didn't work. Neither did the glue they slapped on the top corners, two spots that are definitely getting some fibreglass.



Also, the red/orange cover over the fluoro tube has crazed like crazy too. I may have to look at finding a replacement for this somehow. I'd love to put a clear one in there and use an RGB string behind it.

ABS solvent works very well at fixing the cracks on the NC/NNC/NU monitor cover. This is what I use:

Plastruct Plastic Weld w/applicator https://a.co/d/2pQH2Qv